Something to think about

Recently I had a conversation with someone who gave me a much better explanation about the need for people to stay in contact with their own family. Family is the first social group, and often the most important and influential in our lives. As such, it serves as a model for many of the interactions in the rest of our lives. Now, there are a lot of families that are so dysfunctional that to stay is unbearable and/or dangerous. I'm not advocating that a person continue to live with their kin if they feel threatened or endangered. Some folks think that since kids can't escape, since they are stuck, it means they can do whatever they want to kids, or that family is for beating. Neither is true, and there is no way to accept the thinking, "you are a child and so need to be hurt to get better." When families go wrong, the victimized individual needs to know it is not their own fault.

In the end, what I'm taking from this persons' comments is that family are our model for the world, and if we cannot find some way to accept the family we have, we will have trouble with the world as well. This means we should find a way to be ourselves, while maintaining a balance with our own families, however we can do that. Not just to be a 'part of the family", but to learn from our experiences within the family. If we never deal with the issues we grow up with, we never overcome them; they will be repeated and become a major obstacle to us ever living happily. Of course, by this I am meaning that we cannot run from ourselves-our conditioning and training-and we have to confront our problems to beat them and become better.